Padorec: The Juice Fast Rules

Update: My Juice Fast is now Complete. To read the journals from my 5-day Juice only fast, click below:
Juice Fast Journal: Day 1
Juice Fast Journal: Day 2
Juice Fast Journal: Day 3
Juice Fast Journal: Day 4
Juice Fast Journal: Day 5

Have you ever tried a juice fast? It's really a great experience. Well, actually, it's an awful experience at first, but then it becomes a truly wonderful experience. Common effects are increased energy, a healthy "glow" (scientifically proven), clarity of mind, weight loss, and a better sense of well being.

There are a couple of side effects. On day 1-3, some people report "detox flu" which occurs when your body floods its system with a bunch of stored up toxins, plus, the shift from solid food to liquid food has to do something to you as well. Some will experience weird tastes in their mouth, and bad smells coming from their body. This occurs due to the detox - the poison, nasty crap has to escape somehow - and often, it leaves through your mouth and skin. Don't worry though, it passes (if it even happens at all).

Where can I learn more?

I'm glad you asked. There are plenty of resources for juice fasting. I'd like to give you some!

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead: Follow Joe Cross as he takes off on a 60-day juice fast. Hear his learnings, and get to love one of the gentleman, Phil Staples, who was a 429 lb. truck driver who could barely make it from his truck to the truck stop. It's a truly inspiring story. It's an hour and a half that could change your life.

Hulu: Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Amazon: Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Netflix: Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Join the Reboot: There is an entire program based around the juicing program followed by Joe. You can join the reboot, and do like I am - reboot your life.

Join the Reboot

Juicefeasting.com: Juice fasting and juice feasting are typically the same. The key is that you are setting yourself up to receive all of your nourishment from fresh juices.

Juicefeasting.com

John Kohler - John is so much fun to watch. He has unbelievable energy! Furthermore, he runs Discountjuicers.com. This is a great resource with lots of information. Beyond that, though, he has published over 300 videos about juicing on Youtube.

DiscountJuicers.com

John's Rawfoods Channel on Youtube

Related Documentaries: These are not directly related to juicing, but are related to good health, and come highly recommended by me
Forks over Knives
Food Matters
Food, Inc.
Padorec Amazon Store - This has everything included (Note: I get a portion if you buy from this store)

Want to join in?

I'd love it if you joined in for a juice feast (even if it is only one day. Heck, even if it is only one meal, it will help you. A lot of people like to substitute a juice for breakfast, instead of their standard eggs and bacon.

Well, if you want to join, you'll need a juicer, or access to a fresh juice bar.

But Paul, can't I just use storebought juices?

No. Those juices are usually full of sugar. Even if you find the juices that have no additives (there are very few) they will have sat for a while. Juices lose nutrients the longer they sit. Air and light cause the nutrients in the juice to break down, leading to a lower quality juice. Fresh from the juicer is best, stored in an airtight glass container with no air in it (fill it to the top with liquid to accomplish this) is next, and beyond that, the density of nutrients is questionable. Store bought is still better than bacon and eggs, but if you want to do a feast, then you'll need a juicer.

What juicer should I buy?

Fear not - you don't need to buy a $530 Green Star Juicer. You don't even need a $350 Omega VRT juicer. Nay, a simple, $100 model will work. If you are really strapped for cash, you can go with a cheaper model, but just know that you won't extract as much juice, which means you'll need to spend more on produce.

I own two juicers - an Omega VRT 330, and a L'Equip 306601 XL Juicer. These are two different styles.

Omega VRT350 ($300) - This is my favorite juicer. It's a "masticating" style juicer, which means it works slowly. That means there is less friction, and less heat build up. Essentially, a masticating juicer grinds up and squeezes the fruits and vegetables, instead of chopping it up and flinging it against a screen at high speed (see below). This leads to more nutrient retention, and a much higher quality juice. For a review of it, see this video from one of my favorite juicer fanatics, John Kohler of DiscountJuicers.com.

L'Equip 306601 XL Juicer ($120) - This is a centrifugal juicer. Centrifugal juicers are the juicers people think of when they hear the word "juicer". This is the style that the Jack LaLane juicer is. These chop up the fruits/vegetables and fling them against a screen. They are loud, and obnoxious. I bought this one to keep in Vegas when I was working out there, so I could have a juicer at home, and at work (many miles away) without traveling with it every week. When I'm home, I rarely use this one over the Omega VRT. If you can't afford the Omega, then go with this one, but I'd say if you can afford it, (and how much is your health worth, really?) then go with the Omega.

If you want to be a superstar juicer, or if you are just someone who always wants to have the best of everything, then there is one more option.

Green Star GSE-5000 Elite Jumbo Twin Gear Juice Extractor ($530) - With a name that long, it has to be good, right? This is the super-start, top of the line model for home use (without getting into a $3000 commercial variety). I don't have a whole to say about this one, since I have never used one before, so let's let John tell us his thoughts in the Common Questions and Answers Video

If you can't afford anything, you can probably get by initially with a $30-$50 juicer, or even borrow one from a friend!

My 5-day Juice Fast

I actually got my menu from elsewhere. You can always put together your own juice recipes, but I felt like trying someone else's concept for a 5-day fast. I found these at NoSugarSweetLife, and I have made a few modifications. I'll include the full plan here, with my modifications, but I wanted to provide the original source.

Shopping List:

Apples: 16
Beets: 8
Bell Peppers: 5 (I used red)
Exotic Greens - 4c. (I bought Baby Kale. The original calls for broccoli, but I am allergic)
Carrots: 3 lbs
Cranberries: 3 cubs (I bought 1 lb strawberries because there were no cranberries)
Cucumbers: 8
Ginger: 4 inches
Grapefruit: 2
Honeydew: 1
Kale: 3 bunches
Lemons: 3
Limes: 7
Oranges: 4
Parsley: 2 Bunches
Red Onion: 1
Spinach: 1 Large container
Sweet Potatoes: 2
Tomatoes: 8
Watermelons (small): 1

Recipes

You can absolutely create your own recipes, but if that doesn't appeal to you, then here's all the work done for you!

Mean Green

6 stalks Kale

1 Cucumbers

2 Granny Smith Apples

4 Celery Stalks

½ Lemon

1 piece Ginger

Carbeeple

2 lb. Carrots
2 Apples
3 Small Beets

Sunset Juice

1 large Sweet Potato

3 Pink Lady Apples (could use any apple)

2 Large Beets

1 Bell Pepper (red)

1 Orange

4 Carrots

Homemade V8

4 Plum Tomatoes

1 Large Cucumber

1 Red or Orange Bell Pepper

¼ small red onion

1 cup parsley

1 lime

Pink Kale

7 stalks Kale
2 apples
1 Large Beet
½ small watermelon
1 lime

Green Energy

4 c. Broccoli, or Substitute – exotic Greens (I used Baby Kale)
4 c. Baby Spinach
1 Bell Pepper
2 Granny Smith Apples
Handful of Parsley

Sweet ‘n’ Tart Citrus

3 cups cranberries
2 Oranges
2 Grapefruit
2 limes
Small piece ginger

Cucumber Melon

3 Cucumbers
2 Limes
2 cups honeydew melon
2 small bell peppers
Small piece ginger

I know that's a lot to take from a blog post, so I have put all of the information for the 5-day fast into an easy to download document you can print right off.

Download the 5-day juice fast shopping list + Menu + Recipes

Tracking

I will be tracking my juice fast using a daily journal. This blog. During the day, I'll hop onto Blogger, and at the end of each day, I'll actually post the full journal. Each night (or the following morning) you can catch up on my progress, my tribulations, and hopefully what I'm doing will help others out there to learn.

Produce

This one is simple: buy organic whenever possible. You are juicing. Juicing concentrates the nutrients in the fruits and vegetables (mostly vegetables, no?) but it also concentrates toxins and pesticides. Go organic if you can. If you can't, then wash your produce thoroughly!

If you can afford some organic produce, but not all, then you should check out the dirty dozen. The dirty dozen is the list of the produce which should absolutely, positively be bought organic all the time due to the pesticide use.

Cost

Juice fasting isn't necessarily cheap. I'm not going to pull the "well, the cost that you'll save by not having health issues will more than offset the..." blah blah blah. Look, it's true, being unhealthy is expensive, but people don't really tend to respond to that logic, so I'm avoiding it.

If you're trying to compare to a meal of ramen and water, then there's no way juice fasting is anywhere near the affordability of those two items. However, compared with the standard diet you'll see in most households, you're going to be saving money. I bought nearly 100% organic foods for this, so my cost is a bit higher, but even so, my cost was just fine!

Just $79.83 for 5 days of produce

$79.83 for 5 days of produce. That means I'm dropping ~$13 per day. That is way cheaper than what I usually pay for food in a day (sadly), so it's a win for me. If I had gone with less organic produce, this could have easily dropped below $10 per day.

Well, I think this post is probably long enough. If you have any questions, please do leave a comment, or reach out directly at paul@padorec.com. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, or figure out the answer if I don't have one! And, of course, I'd love to hear about your juicing success.

Lastly, did you know that you could get my posts sent directly to your inbox? Sign up below to join the Padorec.com e-mail list.

Padorec

Saturday, February 9, 2013

The Juice Fast Rules

Where can I learn more?

Want to join in?

What juicer should I buy?

My 5-day Juice Fast

Shopping List:

Menu

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5: